"Well either way, [Nurmagomedov and I are] the toughest sons of b**ches in the division right now, because money made McNugget soft and we all know that” said Ferguson on Submission Radio. “That dude, he wants to call himself the ghost, but he’s gonna fade like a ghost cause he’s a f**king buster. Straight up, dude. That dude’s fake as f**k. So regardless of what he decides to do, it’s what myself or Khabib decide to do with the belt. [McGregor], he’s trying to quit. He’s trying to look for excuses on his way out. He doesn’t want to f**king be in a man’s division. He might as well try to cut to 145 and lost that belt. Now he’s got a bulls**t and try to make excuses for the 155-pound belt. But when one of us has that belt - which is gonna be me - then he’s gonna a hard as f**k time trying to go on his way to victory. Because when you’re facing the boogeyman, you’re facing something kind of different. And both these guys don’t f**king get it. I don’t care who you have around you or who’s holding you back from throwing chairs and water bottles, when you’re locked inside that octagon with me, ain’t nothing gonna hold me back from getting you besides that referee. So I don’t care what belt he’s got. Straight up, I don’t care what belt is in my hands, that will be the real belt no matter what.”

Ferguson will be competing for a title for the first time in the UFC at UFC 209, while McGregor has already held the UFC Lightweight Title and the UFC Featherweight Title.

McGregor has also been trying to get a boxing match with legendary slugger Floyd Mayweather Jr., but Ferguson doesn’t think McGregor will fare to well in that fight either.

“Mayweather is gonna knock his ass out. Mayweather’s too much for him and he already knows that s**t too and the rest of the boxing world knows that. I know who to put my money on in that one. But the real fight that everyone wants to see – and who doesn’t know who to put their money on – would be the McGregor/Ferguson fight. Why? Cause I’m gonna smash that fool. I’m gonna submit him. You already saw him being submitted. That dude tapped before he even got the choke locked in. So I don’t know, man. I don’t even know if I would want to waste my time on that kind of dude. He doesn’t meet my fight standards. The only dude right now that meets it is Khabib,” said Ferguson.

UFC 209 takes place on Saturday, March 4 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson headlining.